


TIFU By Kissing My Own Boyfriend

by Chrystie, kate882



Category: DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Identity Porn, Jason was never robin au, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27057790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrystie/pseuds/Chrystie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882
Summary: Dick and Jason are dating. Simple, right? They don't know about each other's vigilante pass times. Slightly less simple. Nightwing kisses Jason goodbye after bumping into him. Complicated.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 17
Kudos: 387





	TIFU By Kissing My Own Boyfriend

**Author's Note:**

> This story brought to you by: Kate realizes there are some finished and nearly finished fics in the WIP folder

Dick loved Jason, not that he was anywhere near telling him that for fear of him running off or freezing up (as he’d done when Dick had first asked him out. Luckily he ran off to his friend Roy, who was close by and brought him back). He even found it endearing that Jason’s need to annoy vigilantes and cause trouble led him to bugging Dick during his night job as Nightwing. It was hard pretending he didn’t really know Jason all that well, but at this point Nightwing was slowly becoming Jason’s friend. At least he thought so. “And what kind of trouble are you up to tonight?” Dick dropped down into an alley after spotting him.

“Why do you always assume I’m up to trouble?” Jason said innocently. “I’ll have you know, I’m just a hard working school teacher, I’ve clearly never done anything wrong in my life ever.” 

“Clearly, that’s why it’s usually you stopping me on my patrol.”

“I think you mean usually you stopping my ass kickings with your patrol,” Jason corrected mildly. 

“You already have the upper hand most of the time, just making sure you stop at some point.” Dick had to admit that whenever Jason got into a fight, the other person was almost always the one who had done something wrong.

“Well lucky for you no ass kicking today. I’m just walking home from visiting a friend.” Ah, right, Kyle was in town. Dick still wasn’t sure if Jason was aware his frienemy was the latest Lantern, and couldn’t really ask if he wasn’t, especially not as Dick Grayson, the one that actually knew about Kyle being Jason’s visiting friend in town.

“I’m so proud, not even a little bit of trouble making,” Dick wiped at a fake tear in his eye.

“And I got all my students' tests graded. I’m what you might call a model citizen.” 

“Such a model, only a handful of assault charges under your belt,” Dick snickered.

“They’re dropped,” Jason defended. 

“But they were still started.”

“For the same reason you’d have them if you weren’t wearing the mask.”

And Dick knew Jason was right. “I guess. That doesn’t mean you’re not probably the most violent teacher I’ve ever met.” Dick was pretty sure he’d told Jason that a handful of times too.

“Well don’t pair it with my profession, you make it sound like I’m going to beat up my students. I just live in a shitty area of town and refuse to do nothing if I see something happening,” Jason said dismissively. 

“And I guess that’s really what puts you in my good books.”

“And it’s deeply important to me that I be in Nightwing’s good books,” he mocked lightly.

“Isn’t it though?” Dick grinned.

“It’s more important to my students, who don’t believe I know you,” Jason laughed.

“You talk about me to your students? I’m flattered.”

“I don’t. One of them said he saw me with you a few weeks ago though, and no one believes him, and they think I’m just backing him up. Another one of them told me I’m not actually cool enough to know you.”

Dick was pretty sure Jason had complained about this to him not too long ago and he thought it was just hilarious. “I think you’re plenty cool, Mr. Todd.”

“I don’t need or want the validation of a guy in spandex.” 

“The spandex looks good, don’t deny it.” Dick was way past correcting anyone on the actual material of his suit.

“Oh look at the time,” Jason looked at his empty wrist, “looks like it’s time to leave and not comment on that.” 

Dick openly sniffed the air, “you smell that? Smells like denial, but I’ll let you run away.” And that was when Dick fucked up. That was when Dick followed a habit he really shouldn’t have had when he was out as Nightwing. He leaned over and pecked a kiss on Jason’s lips like he always did, but only ever as Dick Grayson.

“I-” Jason looked a little frozen, which was fair because for him this would be totally out of left field. “I’ve got to uh… I’m seeing someone. I should go,” he said stiffly. 

“Right you should- uh- do that.” Dick was itching for an escape too.

“Cool.” And Jason made a very strong effort to look like he wasn’t running away while still doing exactly that. 

* * *

It took about an hour for Jason to call him. He was back home at that point, and he presumed Jason was too.

“Hey babe,” Dick was trying really hard not to show worry or nerves in his voice, “what are you up to?”

“Are you busy? Can I come over?” Jason answered, not at all hiding the nerves in his own voice. 

“Of course, everything alright?” Part of him wanted Jason to tell him about his dumb mistake as Nightwing, Jason never really freely advertised his nerves and it might help if he told Dick, but the more selfish part of him also really didn’t want to broach the subject and avoid it all together.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be there soon,” he said before hanging up. 

He got there a bit faster than the travel time from his place to Dick’s, but soon enough he had a very stressed looking Jason at his door. 

“You’re really not fine,” he said as he pulled Jason in. He supposed he was opening for Jason to talk about it.

“Nightwing kissed me,” Jason blurted out after sitting on Dick’s couch. 

Dick, despite being a performer and a secret vigilante, was not the best actor which meant he didn’t actually know how to respond to that. “What? Did you kiss him back?” Was apparently what his brain was going with.

And apparently not the right thing to say because Jason’s eyes snapped over to him and he looked even more distressed. “Of course I didn’t! I’m dating you.” 

“Well…” Dick schooled his face and reactions, because that was something he knew how to do, “I’m not happy,” which was true even if he was really just upset at himself for being an idiot, “but I’m not angry at you. You clearly weren’t prepared for it or wanting it.”

Jason seemed to finally relax a little when Dick said he wasn’t mad at him. “Roy said I should tell you in person when I called him. I’ve never really been in a situation like this.” 

“Roy was right.” Dick took Jason’s hand in his and kissed his cheek. “I know you can’t help that you’re amazing.”

A little more of the tension left Jason and he leaned into Dick a bit. “I had no idea he was even interested in me like that,” he said. 

“Well he’s a vigilante, he’s really not supposed to show interest in anyone. Maybe it was some kind of mistake, or he was having an off night.”

“What kind of off night mistake is kissing your friend goodbye,” Jason asked incredulously. 

“A… hallucinatory one?” Dick wasn’t really doing a good job at making an excuse for himself.

“Why are you making weird excuses for him? You just said you weren’t happy about it,” Jason frowned at him.

“I’m not, and I’m not happy that he did it, I’m just saying it’s a possibility. Besides, I’m assuming you either ran away as fast as you could, or told him you were taken and then ran away, so maybe he’ll avoid you because of the embarrassing rejection.”

“The second one,” Jason sighed and sank further into the couch. 

“Sounds like rejection to me. Even if he doesn’t avoid you, I doubt he’ll do anything like that again.” Dick was absolutely planning to avoid Jason.

“Right, but like… I was starting to be friends with him. And now it’s weird, and I feel bad because I’m not sure if I accidentally led him on or something like that,” he said miserably.

“Jay, the last thing you can do is lead people on. I could barely tell if you even liked having me around when I asked you out, and you apparently actually liked me. Just give it some time, it’ll be awkward but maybe both of you can just forgive and forget eventually.” He’d really have to think about it though. He didn’t want the same mistake happening again.

“And you’d be okay with that?” Jason asked skeptically. 

Dick sighed, resting his head against Jason’s shoulder. He knew that if it had been anyone other than literally himself, he’d be unreasonably jealous and protective. “I can’t tell you who you can’t be friends with, and I definitely can’t stop people from being attracted to you. Besides I know you didn’t want it. As long as he keeps his hands to himself from now on I’m fine.”

Jason nodded. “I’m ready to stop talking about feelings now if you are. Wanna hear about my visit with Kyle, my friend who didn’t try to kiss me?”

“I’d love that,” Dick chuckled.

* * *

It took a while for Dick to realize Red Hood was avoiding Nightwing. Mostly because sometimes the guy would just disappear for weeks on end, so it wasn’t uncommon for Dick to not see him for a while. He only realized Red Hood was avoiding him when he showed up at the scene of a crime, Hood punched the last of the guys out, and then took off calling a “sorry, busy night,” over his shoulder after weeks of not seeing him. 

Dick and Hood weren’t especially close, but he did consider them friends, so whatever it was that he did wrong, he’d like to know. “Hey! Wait!” Dick shouted, running after him.

Hood did not, in fact, wait. And he’d gotten a head start, but Dick was still faster and knew the city just as well. 

Dick might’ve been faster than Hood, but he didn’t think he was going to catch up to him at the rate they were going. He’d have to cut him off somewhere. Dick veered right, twisting through buildings and cut him off. “Why are you avoiding me?”

Hood skidded to a stop just barely avoiding crashing into Dick. “I just told you I’m busy tonight.”

“No, you straight up fled the second you saw me. You’re avoiding me.”

“I left when I finished what I was doing and told you that I was busy,” Hood said flatly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Which I still am.” 

“Then you wouldn’t mind if I tagged along? We do that sometimes.”

“Busy with non helmet stuff,” Hood tapped the bright red helmet. “So yeah, I’d mind a bit.” 

Dick frowned heavily. It wasn’t like he could argue with that. “Well do you have any free time in the near future?”

“Nightwing, I’ve got to go. I’m already late.”

“Could you at least tell me what I did?”’

“I just told you, I’m not avoiding you. I might start to though if you’re going to keep holding me up like this when I keep telling you I need to go.” 

Dick knew Hood could tell he didn’t believe him the slightest even as he relented with a sigh. “Fine.” And almost as soon as he said it Hood was slipping past him and then gone.

* * *

“Mr. Nightwing! Mr. Nightwing someone needs help!” A little kid shouting to him, stopped Dick before he could jump to the next rooftop. 

Dick jumped down and landed in front of the kid. “What happened? Who needs help?”

“A man, I saw from my house,” the little boy pointed towards presumably where he lived “he’s fighting a bunch of guys.” 

“Alright, thank you for telling me,” he patted the kid’s hair, “you run back to safety, okay?” He made sure the kid was well on his way before taking off in the direction he pointed in.

What he found was Jason, leaning against an alleyway wall with blood dripping from his head, and five other men already unconscious around him. 

Dick had two immediate reactions. The first was the panic that set in at the sight of his boyfriend bleeding and looking like he was going to pass out. The second was that he was Nightwing at the moment and that he couldn’t just swoop in there in full panicked, protective boyfriend mode. His first reaction ended up winning. He swung and dropped down as fast as he could, immediately pulling Jason’s weight against him. “What happened? Can you talk? Do you have a concussion? Why can’t you stay out of trouble and avoid getting hurt?!”

Jason looked a little dazed, but Dick couldn’t be sure if that was the head wound or the number of questions Dick had just thrown at him. “Nightwing? I’m fine, I’m fine,” he mumbled unconvincingly. 

“You’re definitely not. Come on, let’s try to get you home.” Normally Dick would’ve suggested the hospital, but he’d learned pretty fast that Jason hated the hospital. He was more likely to jump out a window than heal at one.

“I’m fine,” Jason tried to insist again, pulling away from Dick only to stumble and have to grab Dick’s arm to keep from lurching over. 

“Please don’t be stubborn just this once.”

“I just… got my head a little smashed into a wall,” he gestured and Dick was more than a little horrified to be able to see the blood on the bricks where Jason’s head had made contact. 

“Please let me take you somewhere to take care of that.” Dick wasn’t even trying to hide his pleading tone.

“... Dick’s place is close by. I guess I could go there,” Jason finally relented.

The smarter part of Dick’s brain told him that taking Jason back to his place without him actually being there as Dick Grayson was very stupid, but it wasn’t the time for smart, it was the time for panic. So without much hesitation, Dick made sure he had a good grip on Jason and had him show him where to go.

“It’s that one,” Jason said, pointing at Dick’s apartment building.

“We’ll have to go through the window so you’ll have to hold on.”

“What? Why would we do that? I’m just gonna have him buzz me in,” Jason frowned at him, still looking a little disoriented.

“I… don’t think he’s home.” He was pretty sure he’d left the lights off before he left.

Or not. “No, his light is on,” Jason pointed at his window. “And breaking into a cop’s place is a good way to get shot anyway.”

“I mean, I can’t exactly walk in through the front door with you, Jay, not dressed like this.”

“I can go in on my own. He probably wouldn’t be happy to see you anyway,” Jason suggested. 

“I really don’t think you should.” Jason could barely stand.

“Well I’m not climbing through his window either, if we were going to do that we should have gone to my place.” 

Dick looked between his apartment and Jason’s bloody forehead and he had to ask himself if keeping this from Jason was really all that worth it anymore. He loved Jason, and should he really still be keeping who he was from him, especially when it was keeping him from helping Jason? Holding Jason a little tighter to him and strengthening his resolve, Dick started pulling them to the alley beside his apartment. “Promise not to kill me?”

“You’re dragging me into a dark alleyway, so absolutely not,” Jason answered, squinting at him. 

“Just give me a minute.” Dick let Jason rest against the wall as he pulled away some loose bricks on the opposite one, pulling out a spare set of clothes he hid there just in case. He quickly pulled them on and hesitated just a bit before reaching for his mask.

“Whoa, what are you…” Jason frowned. “You don’t have to do that. I can get inside on my own.” 

Dick shook his head. “I think it’s time anyway. I don’t exactly like lying to you this much.” And he pulled off the mask, ready to be dumped on the spot.

Jason just stared at him for several seconds, like he was having trouble comprehending what he was seeing, and actually given the head wound that might entirely be the case. “Oh my god…” he finally muttered, leaning forward to look closer. 

Dick reached out for him again, “Let’s get you looked after first.”

“You... Oh my god.” 

Dick gave him a guilty smile. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but we really should fix you before we talk about it.”

Jason started laughing, almost hysterically, and had to lean back against the wall to keep from falling over. “Sorry. Sorry. This is just… what are the odds?”

Now Dick was just all sorts of confused. He could at least count his blessings that Jason hadn’t broken up with him yet, but maybe it was because of blood loss and delirium. “What do you mean? Are you okay?”

“No, probably not, but we should go inside,” Jason said, still laughing a little.

And Dick couldn’t really argue with them finally going in. He set Jason down on the couch when they made it to the apartment and quickly got to work on his head wound.

“I can’t believe you’re Nightwing,” Jason said when he was as patched up as he could be and laying down on the couch. 

“I should’ve told you when I kissed you,” Dick frowned, “I’m sorry.”

“No, stop saying you’re sorry,” Jason threw his arm over his eyes to block out the light, “it’s gonna make me feel bad about telling you I’m Red Hood.”

Dick wasn’t sure he heard that right, wasn’t really sure he was processing right, and ended up just staring at him until it clicked. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You totally called it, I was definitely avoiding you. Because you’d kissed me and I didn’t know you were my boyfriend.” 

And then it was Dicks turn to burst out laughing. “We’re idiots, aren’t we?”

“Well I am. You only wear a mask, I wear a whole helmet.”

“We’ve been dating for a while. There should’ve been signs from both of us. You know what, there were. We just weren’t looking for them.” Dick calmed his laughter down to just a chuckle.

“Hard to notice someone being out at all hours of the night when you’re out too,” Jason agreed, then paused. “Wait. You knew about Kyle! How was that not a huge hint?” 

“I knew you knew Kyle. That doesn’t mean you knew he was a Green Lantern.”

“I’m going to kill Kyle, cause he definitely knew you were Nightwing,” Jason muttered under his breath. 

“He did. He’s probably been laughing at us.”

“When I don’t have a concussion I’m going to kill him,” Jason said solemnly. 

“No you won’t,” Dick pressed a kiss to his bandaged forehead, “You’re just going to think about doing it real hard until it’s out of your system.”

“No I’m going to- wait, shit he’s back in space.” Jason frowned very hard at that realization. 

“Yup, and he won’t be back for a while.”

Jason was probably as close to pouting as Dick had ever seen him, and he was sure it was because of the concussion. “I would have told him if… no actually I don’t know that I would have.” 

Dick let out a snort, “If he’d been dating a vigilante and didn’t know, you would’ve set up cameras and gotten popcorn.”

“Do we have popcorn?” Jason asked hopefully.

“Yeah, we have popcorn.”

“I’m going to make some.” Jason sat up and Dick could see the moment he remembered his injury and the regret set in on his face. 

“No you’re not.” Dick gently pushed him back down, “I’ll make some. I do know how to put things into the microwave.”

Jason nodded reluctantly. “Fine fine, I’ll let you be a good boyfriend.” 

“Good, cause I’ve been feeling like a pretty shitty boyfriend recently.”

“No,” Jason frowned at him. “No more than me at least. You’re not the only one that was keeping a secret.” 

“No,” Dick sighed as he walked over to the connected kitchen to pop a bag of popcorn into the microwave, “but that doesn’t change the way I’ve been feeling lately. It’s all fine now, but wasn’t great in the moment.”

“I get it,” Jason mused, rolling over on his side so he could watch Dick from the couch. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you for a few months now, but haven’t even been able to tell you I love you, and I wanted that to come first- oh,” Jason whispered the last word as he seemed to realize what he’d just said and his entire face turned red. And then he was stumbling towards the window, muttering something about having to go, except he tripped and landed face down on the ground with no indication he was going to get back up. 

Dick’s mind went through two roller coasters of emotions starting with holy shit, Jason loved him and just told him that he loved him, and ending with holy shit he was on the floor now. “Jay!” Dick scrambled back over to him to pick him off the floor. “You love me?” Were the first words out of his mouth instead of the ‘are you okay’ that he meant to say.

Jason just groaned and buried his face in Dick’s chest. 

“I love you too,” Dick was absolutely taking advantage of the fact that Jason couldn’t run away right now.

Jason mumbled something that sounded vaguely like ‘good’, but didn’t lift his face. 

It may not have been how Dick had envisioned telling Jason he loved him, but between having Jason in his arms and finally being free from whatever they were putting each other through, Dick couldn’t complain too much. It was a very them way for this to happen after all. 


End file.
